Page 43 of Dragon's Guard (Dragon Shifter's Mates 1)

I didn’t want that heat directed at me. It stirred up too much desire of myown.

“One deer, ready for dinner,” I announced, stepping out into the grove. The other guys had already gotten a large fire crackling. Aaron was just finishing setting up a makeshiftspit.

Nate grinned and moved to take the deer from me. Ren, sitting on a stone a few feet from the fire pit, wrinkled her nose. I didn’t like the discomfort I saw in her eyes now either. Maybe Ishouldhave come outnaked.

“So you just went out there and hunted it down?” shesaid.

I wasn’t going to let myself feel ashamed about something this basic. “What, like an animal? In case you’ve forgotten, I am one. I did a lot worse to those vampires a couple daysago.”

“Yeah, but they attacked us first.” Her gaze followed the deer as Nate set it on a log to skin it. As the knife cut into the hide, she winced and lookedaway.

“We need to eat. We’re all predators here, Sparks. This is the way of the wild.” I motioned toward the deer. “I picked off one that was already lame. It wasn’t fit to survive anyway. So just enjoy your meal. You can thank meafter.”

* * *

Ren

Idrewmy legs closer to my stone perch and balanced my phone on my knees.It’s like he constantly has to be taking me down a peg, I texted to Kylie.He treats me like I’m anidiot.

Boys pulling pigtails, she wrote back with a winking emoji.He’s got it for youbad.

I glanced across the grove to where West was helping Nate arrange the deer carcass on the spit Aaron had fashioned. The firelight caught on the red and silver in his hair and the angular planes of his handsomeface.

Way too handsome. Even when I was irritated with him, I couldn’t squash the longing to see a real smile cross that face, directed atme.

He’s twenty-seven, I replied.I think he’s past the preschool stage offlirting.

You’d be surprised. Some guys never grow out of it. I say you march right up to him and plant one on him. And then write back to tell me all about the amazing sex you two get upto.

I shook my head at the screen.Ha ha. Notlikely.

Oh, hey, dinner’s here. Catch you againsoon!

I tucked the phone onto my pocket and watched the guys set the roasting stick holdingourdinner over the fire. The flames sizzled as a few drops of blood dripped off the skinned flesh. The mass of pink and red muscle made me think of the claw marks that still hadn’t quite faded from my skin. The blood in Kylie’s hair last night. I rubbed myarms.

What had West said about that deer? That it’d been weak. Not fit to survive. Did he think the same thing when he looked at me? I wasn’t even coming close to keeping up with my supposed mates. Marco had said a dragon shifter would put the rest of them to shame. I’d hardly been living up to thatexpectation.

A stick snapped in the forest behind me. I flinched and jerked around, my heart thudding. It was only Marco himself, coming back from a patrol of our campsite. He dipped his head to me with his slanted smirk. “Nothing to worry about, princess. Allclear.”

The thickening darkness behind him looked anything but clear. The rogue shifters might not be close enough for him to sense, but they could be tracking us. Who knew how quickly they could move? Most of the ones that had attacked me and Kylie had outrun West’skin.

Apprehension prickled over me. I hugged myself and turned back to thefire.

Marco sauntered past me and cocked his head, eyeing the spit. “Now that’s a fine sight. I’m glad the rest of you are sodomestic.”

West snorted. Nate let out a disgruntled huff of breath. “I’d hate to see what your kills look like when you’re done playing with them,” hesaid.

Marco chuckled. “I’m a jaguar, not a house cat. And I’d bet I could have taken down a deer twice thatsize.”

“Twice as long to cook, and more meat than we’d have time to eat. Sounds like a brilliant plan.” West motioned toward the trees. “Go ahead and take a stab at it, if you’ve got that much toprove.”

“Ah, why bother when you’ve already done the work for me?” The jaguar shifter lowered himself onto a log and stretched his legs out as if perfectlyrelaxed.

A thump from the other side of the van made me startle again. “That’s Aaron coming back,” Nate said, noticing. Right. The eagle shifter had been taking a turn over the landscape from above before it got too dark to spot ourenemies.

He emerged from behind the van a moment later, buttoning up his shirt as he came. I couldn’t help feeling a little sorry to see those sculpted muscles disappearing behind thefabric.

“See anything interesting, bird boy?” Marco asked him. He poked at the fire idly with astick.

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